


A Word from the Author

by sixclawsdragon



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: AUTHOR AU, M/M, Secret Identity, Texting, chekov and gary mitchell cameos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-17
Updated: 2018-04-17
Packaged: 2019-04-24 01:05:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14344746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sixclawsdragon/pseuds/sixclawsdragon
Summary: Jim is a sci-fi author, and he meets Leonard McCoy at a writing convention. They become friends, but there are some things Jim doesn't know yet.





	A Word from the Author

**Author's Note:**

> For the spring cleaning challenge hosted by auduna-druitt on tumblr

Jim Kirk, for all his talk of going to space, actually enjoys being an author here on Earth. He gets to do fun things like visit schools, or go to conferences like the one he’s attending this week. It’s a smaller one, in Georgia, but Jim’s on a couple of panels. The one he’s most looking forward to is the one on writing realistic combat, as always. It’s his favorite because he gets to pull someone from the audience to help him demonstrate the things he’s talking about, and he really enjoys audience participation.

But that’s tomorrow, and right now he’s just wandering the vendors’ hall. There are some really great books on sale, and Jim always like supporting his fellow authors. He stops at different tables that catch his eye, or those where his friends are selling.

“Jim!” Someone calls from behind him, and he turns to see Gary Mitchell waving from a sales table. Jim heads over to chat, and notices that Gary is selling the fantasy novel he’d been working on for a while.

“You finished it, I see.” He picks one up and reads the blurb on the back. “Any chance you’d like to give away a free copy, out of the goodness of your heart?” He jokes.

“Nope.” Gary grabs the book from him. “But if you buy it, I’ll sign it.”

Jim does buy it, and Gary scribbles something on the inside cover before handing him the book. Jim opens it as he walks away. It says ‘ _To Jim, from the best author you know._ ’ He laughs and puts the book in his bag, moving on.

He’s admiring Pavel Chekov’s _101 Things You Didn’t Know Were Russian_ book display when he bumps into someone.

“Oh, sorry, I wasn’t looking.” The man he’d run into waves it off.

“Don’t worry about it, I wasn’t paying attention either.” He’s pretty good looking, and he’s got a bag slung over his shoulder that looks heavy, book corners poking against the fabric. Jim nods at it.

“I think that bag might split if you keep buying books.” The man laughs, and shifts the strap of the bag on his shoulder.

“It very well might, but you know how it is.”

“I do.” Jim smiles. “I’m Jim. Jim Kirk.”

“Leonard McCoy. Nice to meet you.” The man shakes Jim’s hand. If he recognizes his name, he doesn’t comment on it.

“If you’re set on ripping that bag, I’d recommend Gary Mitchell’s newest book. He’s selling just over there.” Jim points.

“Is it any good?”

“No idea, but it sure is heavy.” Jim jokes, hefting his own bag. “But knowing Gary, it’s probably great.”

“You a friend of his?” Leonard asks, and Jim knows then that Leonard hasn’t heard of his work.

“Sort of. We’re with the same publisher, actually.”

“I see.” Leonard rubs the back of his neck awkwardly. “Sorry for not recognizing your name, but if it helps, I haven’t read anything by your friend either.”

“It’s fine.” Jim shrugs. “I’m not on the bestsellers list or anything. Yet.” He adds, grinning.

“Well, good luck.” Leonard says, and Jim thanks him.

“If you want to hear more about my work, I’m on a panel at three.” He adds, hoping Leonard will come. He’s enjoyed talking to him.

“I think I’m free.” Leonard says, and they both move on with their book browsing.

~~~~~~~~~

“You shouldn’t tell a room full of people that their dream career was your backup plan, but I’m gonna tell you exactly that.” Jim says, starting his introduction speech. “I wanted to be an astronaut, but NASA hasn’t hired me...yet.” He adds, earning a laugh from the crowd.

“Now I spend my time writing about space and hitting refresh on the webpage for the astronaut candidate program. But this is a science _fiction_ panel, so let’s get to the spaceships and phasers, right?” Jim notices Leonard standing in the back as he talks, and he waves when Jim makes eye contact.

Jim’s ‘lecture’ for this panel is about writing space and futuristic science in a believable way that doesn’t confuse the reader. The audience enjoys it, as always, and Jim is pleased to see that Leonard seems to be enjoying it too.

Leonard waits around afterwards, and when the last of the fans with questions for Jim have left, he joins him at the front of the room.

“That was some interesting stuff.” He says. “You serious about the astronaut thing?”

“Yep. That was always my dream. I have a masters in astrophysics, I work in research when I’m not writing.” Jim shrugs. “What do you do for a living?”

“I’m a doctor at Northside Hospital.” Leonard says. “No space travel for me.”

“Do you write, or are you just here for the books?” Jim finishes packing up, and they start walking together.

“I write a little, but it’s nothing special.” Leonard doesn’t offer any more detail.

“Aw, don’t say that. Everyone’s work is different, and I’m sure yours is great.” Jim reassures him, patting his shoulder. Leonard hadn’t said whether he’s been published or not, but he doesn’t seem to want to talk about it, so Jim doesn’t ask.

“You know,” Jim starts, changing the subject. “If you liked that one, I have another panel tomorrow.”

“I’ll be there.” Leonard nods, and they keep walking, dropping in on different panels and lectures whenever one looks interesting. When things are winding down for the evening, they head to a little cafe near Jim’s hotel and eat dinner together. Leonard walks Jim home, even though the hotel is just down the street. They say their goodbyes in the lobby, and Jim considers inviting Leonard up to his room, thinking about it right up until the elevator doors close in front of him.

~~~~~~~~~

The combat panel, Jim’s favorite, is the next day. He can’t wait for Leonard to show up. After all, he may not know it yet, but he’s going to be the volunteer from the audience.

Leonard stands in the back again when he arrives, and Jim starts his introduction speech, grinning at him.

“I’ll need a little help demonstrating some of the things I’m going to be talking about, so please welcome my friend Leonard!” He holds a hand out to Leonard, who looks like he might slip out the door and flee. Jim laughs and beckons him to the front. “Don’t be shy, it’ll be fun.”

“What are you doing?” Leonard whispers when he finally joins Jim at the front.

“Don’t worry, I’ll tell you what to do.” Jim reassures him before starting to talk about pacing for fight scenes. When he gets to the demonstration part of his little lecture, he walks Leonard and the audience through a few example moves.

“See? This isn’t so bad.” He whispers to Leonard while he’s holding him from behind with an arm slung around his neck.

“Do you do this to all your friends, or am I special?” Leonard whispers when Jim lets him go.

“You’re special, of course.” Jim winks, and Leonard rolls his eyes.

~~~~~~~~~

“It was fun, right? Admit it, you’re only pretending to be grumpy.” Jim nudges Leonard on their way to get lunch after the panel.

“It wasn’t terrible.” He says, but he’s smiling. Jim grins.

They get a table at the same little cafe they ate at the day before, and chat while they wait for their food.

“Who do you think the end of conference speaker will be?” Jim wonders aloud. The speaker is always a secret until the last day of the conference, but there have been some big name authors invited in previous years.

Leonard shrugs, but doesn’t say anything.

“You wanna go to the closing presentation together?” Jim steals a fry from Leonard’s plate, but he doesn’t seem to notice.

“I’ll be there.” He says, but declines Jim’s suggestion to meet up beforehand, saying he has something he needs to do. Weird, but Jim doesn’t ask, since Leonard doesn’t seem to want to tell him.

~~~~~~~~~

The closing presentation is in the evening the next day, and Jim doesn’t see Leonard at all beforehand. He waits for him in the crowd, since he’d said he would be there, but he hasn’t seen him yet. He tells himself it’s just because it’s so crowded, and not because Leonard didn’t come.

But they’re introducing the end of conference speaker, and he still hasn’t seen him. He gives up looking, deciding to listen to the speaker and find Leonard afterwards. The announcer asks everyone to welcome Forest Urban, and Jim recognizes the name. He’d written a romance between a doctor and patient in a hospital. Jim’s read it, it’s good, even if there isn’t a happy ending.

What he doesn’t expect is for Leonard to walk onto the stage. Jim almost thinks that maybe he’s there by mistake, or he’s actually a volunteer helping out with the presentation, but he steps up to the microphone and introduces himself as Forest Urban.

Jim doesn’t really hear most of Leonard’s (Forest’s?) speech, he’s too busy trying to wrap his head around this revelation. He hangs back when people start to leave after Leonard is done, wanting an explanation.

Leonard finds him when the room has emptied.

“So.” He says, leaning back against the wall next to Jim.

“So.” Jim says back. “Forest Urban, huh? I seem to recall you saying your writing wasn’t anything special.”

“It’s a pen name, I didn’t want the attention from the book in my real life.” Leonard sighs. “I owe you an explanation. Can we go to the cafe?”

They do, and Leonard buys dinner for both of them while he talks. His book, he reveals, is based on a true story. He’d been in love with a patient, but she’d moved to Texas for better cancer treatment, and he hadn’t been able to uproot his life and follow her.

“I don’t even know if she’s still alive.” He says, looking down at the table. “She didn’t leave a way to contact her. Said she didn’t want to leave me waiting for a relationship that might never happen.”

“I’m sorry.” Jim says, for lack of anything better to say.

“I wrote everything down to help myself get over her, and my sister read it and kept pushing me to publish it. And here we are.” Leonard looks Jim in the eye. “I’m sorry I wasn’t honest from the beginning. I really enjoyed spending time with you this week.”

“To be fair, I probably wouldn’t have told anyone either.” Jim says, shrugging. “I do appreciate that you’re telling me now, but you could’ve at least mentioned it before your end of conference speech. I thought you weren’t coming when I couldn’t find you.”

“Sorry.” Leonard apologizes again, but Jim isn’t really mad. Not after hearing his story and understanding why he didn’t tell anyone. “If you still want to, I’d like to exchange contact information.”

“Of course.” Jim pulls out his phone and creates a new contact, naming it Leonard. They exchange phones and Jim adds a little heart next to his name in Leonard’s contacts. When they switch back, he sees that Leonard changed his contact name too. Now it just says Len.

“Hope you don’t mind.” He says. “Most of my friends call me Len.”

“I don’t mind at all, Len.” Jim says, trying out the nickname. He sends a text to make sure they have everything put in right, and Len’s phone buzzes.

**Jim Kirk <3: **Are u free Sunday?

Len looks up at Jim and raises an eyebrow, but texts back.

**Len McCoy:** Yeah

**Jim Kirk <3: **Lunch before I leave town?

**Len McCoy:** Sounds good.

**Jim Kirk <3: **Cool

Len looks up at Jim again, and the typing bubble pops up as he turns back to his phone.

**Len McCoy:** Is this a date

**Len McCoy:** Sorry if I’m wrong but you put a heart by your name and you’re asking me to lunch

**Jim Kirk <3:** It can be

**Jim Kirk <3:** If you want it to

**Jim Kirk <3: **If not can we pretend this didnt happen

Len laughs and puts his phone down to actually speak to Jim.

“I’d like that.” He says, and Jim beams.

“It’s a date.”


End file.
